Daniel Burnham

Carving off 20 or so acres from public parks (such as Washington Park and Jackson Park) for the Obama presidential library flies in the face of the guiding principle of Daniel Burnham: that land should be set aside for all the people and not a privileged few. Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago Park District commissioners (who are appointed and not elected by residents of the city of Chicago) are serving the privileged few. Especially on hot summer days, parks are the refuge for people without air-conditioning in crowded conditions. Moreover, parks are important for outdoor recreation, family gatherings and picnics, all of which help to bring together family and friends and foster...

Related "Daniel Burnham" Articles

Carving off 20 or so acres from public parks (such as Washington Park and Jackson Park) for the Obama presidential library flies in the face of the guiding principle of Daniel Burnham: that land should be set aside for all the people and not a...

"A century ago civic architect Daniel Burnham mapped a physical future for this city. He had intended to design social remedies as well but didn't deliver. Today, with education failures, joblessness, crime and other intertwined challenges...

"Make no little plans" long has been the mantra of this city, a common justification for our hubristic plans for the skyline or lakefront, often trumping fiscal prudence. But between 11 o'clock in the morning and 11 at night on Sunday, a stretch...

“Blunderbuss,” the title of Jack White’s first solo album, suggests a scattershot approach to American music rather than a focused exploration. Everything is possible, nothing is out of reach. On the title track of his recently released second album,...

Richard M. Daley won't have to take the witness stand in the case over the city's controversial contract with a clout-heavy group of investors to run a Millennium Park restaurant after attorneys for the Park Grill agreed it would be a “medical hardship”...

For the past 21/2 months, five nights a week, Amber Schabdach, senior paintings conservator for the Conservation Center, wrapped small sticks in cotton, creating makeshift Q-tips. Then she climbed onto a hydraulic lift and rose 20 feet in the air. There...

"(I)n no instance will further private development be permitted east of Lake Shore Drive."
— Lakefront Plan of Chicago
Chicago, already a huge draw for tourists, is the logical place for George Lucas to display his collection of art and...

For more than a century, The Force -- as in the force of law -- has been with open space advocates as they battled to keep Chicago’s lakefront free of buildings.
In 1909, Aaron Montgomery Ward won a historic court fight that kept the Field Museum out...

A century ago civic architect Daniel Burnham mapped a physical future for this city. He had intended to design social remedies as well but didn't deliver. Today, with education failures, joblessness, crime and other intertwined challenges confronting...

How many times has this happened to you? You're taking out-of-town visitors around the Loop or another popular neighborhood, and they point to a building you've seen thousands of times before and ask "What's that?" You hem and haw while your...

Since October we've fielded more than 1,000 ideas from Tribune readers about how to build a better Chicago. The range of proposals is impressively diverse. But one luminous thread twists through essay after essay, as if many writers had secretly convened:...

Naper Settlement is offering two charter bus tours to the "City of Big Shoulders" celebrating the history of the third largest city in the nation. The Historic Chicago Bus Tour leaves at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, May 31 from Naper Settlement's...

Survey modern Chicago — its abundant natural resources, its muscular skyline and powerhouse institutions — and you might conclude that the city was destined to rank among the world's elite.
Not necessarily. Chicago is an engine powered by the ideas,...

WASHINGTON--President Barack Obama made official today that $70 million in federal money will be heading to Chicago to help create a manufacturing innovation hub.
Speaking from the White House, Obama lauded the newest hubs that are being created in...

Chicago’s most important long-term asset is its young people. While Daniel Burnham’s Plan of Chicago boldly transformed the physical landscape of Chicago, it fell short in terms of mobilizing our human capital. This can change. Chicago can and should...

Chicago's heart-stopping lakefront, thrumming Loop and brawny riverfront did not happen by accident or sheer luck.
This city rose from swamp to global elite because people — including famed architect Daniel Burnham and a legion of politicians, developers...

More than a century ago, civic architect Daniel Burnham's Plan of Chicago helped set this city on course to grow and thrive. Burnham understood the power of big ideas to fire the imagination, to dial up the civic flame and create a city of prosperity and,...

Imagine city leaders surveying Chicago after the Great Fire of 1871, a landscape of ash and ruin. Their task, as daunting as it must have been exhilarating: Build the city again, from the husk of what was. Build it better.
Thirty-eight years later, famed...

Struggling public schools in some Chicago neighborhoods only provide further incentive for middle-class families to choose suburban enclaves. But the story of urban planning that began with Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago is a tale of...

To our readers:
In a series of editorials over the past two months, the Chicago Tribune called for the creation of “A New Plan of Chicago” to address the city’s interconnected challenges in a holistic way. And we asked you to help us.
Our goal...